Is Hell A Myth? # 1

Is Hell A Myth? # 1

"And fear not them which kill the body; but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matthew 10:28).

I. The Asking - "Is hell a Myth?"

A myth? Like Aeolus imprisoning in a leather bag tied with a silver string such winds and tempests as might be hurled to the further voyage of Ulysses? Like the cranes of Ibycus? Like the Minotaur, the fierce animal with a bull's body and a man's head, which demanded a tribute of seven young men and seven young women - and the killing of this beast by Theseus with the aid of Ariadne?

A myth? As when Prosrpine cried for help and her voice was heard by all the mothers of earth? As Laocoon, the priest of Neptune, and the serpents of the sea in fierce attack? As Nemesis, the avenging deity of mythology? As the three         Furies - Alecto, the relentless - Tisiphone, the avenger - Megaera, the grim - three women-like creatures, with writhing snakes for hair, a whip of live scorpions in the other?

A myth? As Hercules and the poison garment of Nessus? As Hercules strangling two serpents with his hands at birth? As Hercules and his "Twelve Labors?" As Midas and his golden touch? As Sisyphus who made a chair with automatic workings - so that when a creditor called upon him to collect a debt, Sisyphus invited him to sit down, and no sooner had the fellow taken a seat when one hundred ligaments of steel darted out and bound the fellow fast - and Sisyphus kept him there until he canceled the debt?

A myth? As the winged feet of Mercury? As Ulysses who filled the ears of his crew with wax and bound himself with knotted thongs to the mast - as they neared the sorcerer's shore?

Asking, "Is hell a myth?" is but an interrogatory way - on the part of some - of stating the hell is a myth - as much as the wilde mythologies of the Greeks. With playful raillery do many speak of the fact of hell. With a blighting barriken do many speak of the fact of hell. With many hell is a wild nightmare of a disordered brain - the fanciful fake of an erratic mind. A myth? Just as well say a lion has the mouth of a mouse! A myth? Just as well say an eagle has a sparrow's wings! A myth? Just as well say you can cradle a furnace in a thimble! All of which brings us to consider some...

II. Asseverations

Asseverate "to affirm, to aver positively or with solemnity." Many there are who, with ridicule of those who disagree, declare that there is no hell. Atheists tell us that we die like dogs - that our souls perish with our bodies - that when the earth has swallowed us up, we become part and parcel with clay; and that is the end of the whole matter. We, believing not what the atheists say, doubt if the atheists believe themselves.

But note what some say: "Milton's conception of hell was inconsistent with the character of God as revealed in Jesus Christ." "The pulpit teaching about hell is an unauthorized accretion to the true doctrine - and repugnant to reason." "Hell-fire is a riot of imaginative genius." "The Dantesque picture as a place of penal flames, smoke, and physical torture is an absurd picture." "Indeed, it is to be doubted whether men ever believed fully in the existence of such a hell, for if preachers believed in the hell they taught thirty years ago, and had any humanity in them, they would have been unable to sleep in their beds. To talk of a hall so horrible that no man with a heart in him would throw a dog into it, and yet to preach that the Almighty Father casts the bulk of the human family into it to burn for ever and ever, was to insult the very name of the Being whom we are taught to love."

And more: "Hell is a state - and not a place. To live in harmony with what we understand to be God's law is the truest heaven. To live out of harmony with that law is hell." "Heaven and hell might be the same place - and heaven will be hell to the man who loves evil things." "Many of the terms describing hell are allegorical or metaphorical or poetic - and imply the spiritual state which is the antithesis of salvation." "If the Bible teaches everlasting punishment, so much the worse for the Bible, because we cannot believe it. We are no longer the slaves of a book, nor the blind devotees of a creed, we believe in love and evolution."

Now let me ask, if there is no hell, is not the Bible a bundle of blunders, a myth, a book of fairy tales? Are not the prophets, who spoke of God's mercy, liars? If there is no hell, does not Jesus Himself deserve to wear the label of the impostor? Into the valley of Hinnom, outside the city of Jerusalem, the Jews threw the refuse of the city and the dead carcasses of animals - where the worms would eat them and a fire was kept continually burning. Jesus used this great valley of offal to describe the awful reality of hell.

"And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off" it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:43-44).

If there is no hell, is not Calvary, with all its sufferings and sacrifice and finished atoning work, a blunder and all the voices thereof a babel of incoherence? By every contemptuous mouthful of spit that befouled His face, by every hair of His beard which cruel fingers tore from His cheeks, by every bruise of His face, by every mark of the scourge upon His back, by every thorn that punctured His brow, by every nail that held Him to the tree, by every breath He drew which was a pang of death, by every beat of His heart which was a throb of agony - by all the shadows that covered the earth when black midnight came at noon-day, we say that if Calvary be not the way of escape from an eternal hell, then Calvary is a mistake!

It is not credible that the Son of God should have become man and died on the Cross merely to save men from the short and temporal consequences of sin. The infinity of the sacrifice implies as infinity of punishment as that from which the sacrifice was intended to deliver those who would accept the sacrifice. If a man accepts the atonement of Christ - how can he doubt the dogma of hell? Let us ask, can there be a heaven if there be no hell? The Bible, book above and beyond all books as a river is beyond a rill in reach speaks of heaven. But the same Bible also speaks of hell. The same Bible that speaks of the glories and bliss of heaven speaks of the woes and pains and miseries of hell - as the portion of those who reject Christ. So let us consider thee...

III. Actuality

~Robert G. Lee~

(continued with # 2)